Minister Fernando Mattos recognized the danger that the decision implies but that they made it together with the President “assuming the risk that it implies.”
Around 270 exotic birds and reptiles that had been seized by the Ministry of Environment for the presumption of being infected with bird flu will be quarantined, after the president’s decision Luis Lacalle Pou to revoke the measure to slaughter them. This was confirmed this Thursday at a press conference by the Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, fernando mattos.
The health emergency in which the country has been since February 15, when the first case of influenza, establishes the prohibition of movements of backyard birds that are outside the control of the Poultry Monitoring System.
For this reason, Mattos remarked that the norm indicated that most of the seized animals should be sacrificed, since more than 100 are birds, such as Australian parrots, blue-headed parrots, blackbirds, cardinals or cockatoos.
“There are other species that are not birds, some reptiles and turtles, which are going to be released because the risk analysis carried out by the health authority determines that the risk is not greater. The issue of birds is a little more complex.” , maintained the hierarch.
However, he added that -after the new decision- they will go to a “quarantine” of animals from the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries where they will be monitored by personnel from the National Institute of Animal Welfare. “The corresponding analysis, follow-up, and once the risk is reduced they will be released eventually for a reserve of an environmental nature as long as the guarantees are in place,” said Mattos.
Mattos acknowledged the risk involved in the decision
“No one is willing to eliminate these animals, we have that sensitivity, but we have to preserve the health status of the country,” said the minister.
In addition, he assured: “It is a decision that we assume with the president, assuming the risk that this implies“. The idea of protecting them in a “quarantine” goes precisely in the sense of “mitigating” that risk, according to Mattos.
Source: Ambito
